Optimizing snake locomotion in the plane. II. Large transverse friction

2013/04/16 by Silas Alben, Alben, Silas
Engineering · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Amphibian and Reptile Biology #Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #Biomimetic flight and propulsion mechanisms #FOS: Physical sciences #Robotic Locomotion and Control #physics.bio-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1304.4485

20 pages, 3 figures

arxiv created 2013/04/16 · openalex publication_date 2013/04/16 · arxiv updated 2013/04/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We determine analytically the form of optimal snake locomotion when the coefficient of transverse friction is large, the typical regime for biological and robotic snakes. We find that the optimal snake motion is a retrograde traveling wave, with a wave amplitude that decays as the -1/4 power of the coefficient of transverse friction. This result agrees well with our numerical computations.

Citations

• The optimal elastic flagellum

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